Bliss English Club

<Bliss Meeting Notice: “Eco-Friendly: The Eternal Farm Villages’” by Kevin on April 20, 2019

Dear Blissers,

What’s the typical Taiwanese landscape in your mind? For me, instead of Taipei 101, it’s the green vast-stretching rice paddies with scarecrow in the middle of rice paddies.

Most of us now live in cities; however, not too long ago, most humans lived in villages. Unfortunately, modern cities and farming villages have become vastly different worlds. How well do we really know our villages now?

Do we even pay attention to them? Villages should not be regarded as still-to-be developed cities, or waste disposal sites for urban areas. A self-regulated farming village with its own sense of value is indispensable for national sustainability. The separation of farming villages from urban or modern life is not necessary or inevitable. Facing the challenges of modern technology and industry, it is critical for villages to develop without losing their essential nature.

This coming Sat. come and joining us to watch the documentary “The Eternal Farm Villages (農村的遠見)” produced by the Public Television (公視), which they spent 4 years to visit several countries with good model on developing and maintaining their self-regulated farming village, and please “Preview” these 2 clips before joining our meeting:

https://www.ptsplus.tv/season/59d32844-bd31-4362-a8a9-1001bb74a4ad

Ep2德國懷楊鄉 「遠見懷楊」
The Vision of Wayarn” Weyarn, Germany

Ep3荷蘭綠心 「綠色核心」
The Green Heart of the Netherlands” The Netherlands

We will discuss following questions directly in the meeting without watching the clip again in the meeting , kindly noted

Agenda with guided question as follows :

14:30-14:40 Self Introduction and warm up

14:40-16:00 Discussion of Ep2 The Vision of Weyarn” Weyarn, Germany

16:00-16:10 Break and social time

16:10-17:30 Discussion of Ep3 The Green Heart of the Netherlands”, The Netherlands

Guided Question of Ep2

1. Germany Weyarn had successful balance between economy progress and village reservationtion based on 3 steps (1. checking what we have. 2 understand the strength and weakness based on current status 3. Set up the vision and execute it in reality). If we follow these steps, what can we do for our villages/farm?

2. People in Weyarn enjoyed participation in public affairs and volunteering for their commninity. The key to perserving their village culture is to invlove people participation better than leader's own decision. The clip mentioned we are losing group trust in the cities but they feel close in the village. Do you agree this point and what can we do to increase mutal trust and encourage people to participate public affairs?

3. Based on election results, it made me feel Taiwan soceity value economy/money/CP the most. I am curious why people in clips value the relationship with environment higher than economy? Then they are willing to sacrafice some convenience or potential economic fruit and even come to consensus without dispute . What's the reasons behind our difference?

Guided Question of Ep3

1. What is the typical Taiwanese landscape that first coming to your mind ? ( as mentioned in this clip , the field and cows is the typical landscapes that comes to people's mind , and all of the development of green heart shall have such character ) ....how about Taiwan ? Our development of agriculture need to have what kind of character within?
2. Why the "Delta Program" 三角洲計畫  & "Room for River" can stretch out for 100 years no matter who is the President or political parties take turns ?

3.  What inspires or touches you most in this clip? please share with us

<Bliss recap of Ellen’s Russian Trip Part II by Ellen Huang on April. 13, 2019>

Host : Ellen

Attendees : Igor , Julie , Mike , Winnie, Arthur , Julie , Daniel Yang , Carmelo , Selina , Emma

Meeting Photo Link : https://photos.app.goo.gl/5vsQUe57uiECunB1A

Russian poet Brock said: "Russia is a mystery."

British Prime Minister Churchill also said: "Russia is a mystery wrapped in the mystery of the mystery."

The mysterious Russia is like a re-opening matryoshka doll, which seems to be consistent, but it is difficult to describe its true appearance.

Meeting started from self-intro and everyone’s first impression toward Russia ..most of the Blissers’ first impression toward Russia is their national drink Vodka , and strong drinkers , while one Blissers said he is impressed by his generous and friendly Russian business partner.

Following up in the meeting , Ellen introducd several spots in Mosow city that her colleagues introduced to her in bilanguage – In Russian & in English and she feel very warm and welcoming from her colleagues in the very 1^st day while arriving Moscow .

Instead of introducing some iconic Russia food like Russian Borscht

 Caviar or Vodka , she shared with Blissers her favorite Russian breakfast introduced by her colleagues , which are local Russian daily products and everyday meals . Igor also add on how to prepare those Russian dishes and also the origin of these so call “Russian” food actually comes from Ukraine( Borscht ) or Georgia( the cold drink with Tarragon,  is a species of perennial herb in the sunflower family )

Igor said this is the most special part of Russia , they always preserving well the old traditional food or way of living , celebration of holidays …that’s why nowadays when you are in Russia , you still can eat something from thousands years ago from other countries .

Then it goes to the Russian people and their personality , Ellen often being reminded that when walk on the street in Moscow , do not smile to Russian people even you asking for help or direction of way , you will be regard as suspicious or a stupid person ….one of her colleague shared the reason when Russian people are relatively cool and cold comparing with Asian , not only of the cold weather but because of the hard time they have been through every several years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union , including several economical crisis , Russian Ruble depreciation and the sanction from western countries to Russia these years…so Russian people always joking that they are ready for next crisis in their country in 2019 .

Igor shared his point also that Russian people actually do not all acting like this , they can distinguish if the smile you wearing is from your heart or just being polite , he emphasize that Russian people like to “ being natural “ , express your true feelings when dealing with Russian , you do not need to smile if you feel confused or nervous or stressful .

Russian just do not express emotion easily , but it does not mean they cannot tell your true emotion or feeling , specially they are good at telling whether your smile is sincere or fake one .So just be true and sincere and do not afraid to smile to Russian people .

Ellen then shared how special for her of this business trip this time as she is the only “ foreigner” to join the annual summit while all the meeting conducted in Russian only and all of the attendees all Russian , So here comes another question from Ellen to all the Blissers….if you were Ellen, how do you get yourself involved to the meeting and build up interaction and connection with those Russian colleagues after joining their meeting ?

Answers from Ellen is to give sincere feedbacks to the speakers ( there’s English interpretation support from Ellen’s colleague during the meeting )

Though it may not easy in the beginning to talk with Russian people specially in English , however, some as the “Smile Myth” shared earlier in the meeting …you can definitely melt the ice on the Russian face with the true hearted feedbacks

The last section of Ellen’s business sharing is about the closing party that her colleagues came across 25 regions of Russia with 11 different time zones , all gathered together in Moscow and sharing their local food , drinks and traditional way of celebration holidays…few clips is shared in the meeting and Ellen then asked another question that why she told her colleagues after her watching of the performance from each different regions of colleagues , reminding her the saying of “The most localization presents the best globalization” 越在地 ;越國際 ?

Only when people understanding where we are from , what is our roots ..so we can sharing with foreign friends what’s the different culture or tradition toward the same event ( e.g. : new year celebration ) and therefore , can give sparks and new ideas to each other and inspiring people in some way as Ellen was inspired by her colleagues .

Last session of the meeting is the question discussion , which due to time limited again , Igor cannot give his answers of all the 4 following questions but just the 1^st one :

1 Back to old days of Cold War,Soviet Union are the power that even USA are forced to be reckon with. But since 1980s the empire seems not able to let nationals trust them anymore and lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

What do you think about collapse of Soviet Union? The reason is people wants to pursue the freedom and a better material life or something else?

2 What’s Russia rich for, in terms of natural resources?

3 What Do Russian people think about China and America?

4 Some news shows Putin is trying to sustain his political power by controlling Russia’s media. It seems he acts like TSAR. What’s your opinion on Putin’s performance in the past and how did you get the truth under Putin’s surveillance on media?

Answer from Igor regarding question #1 , there are 2 misunderstandings from this question (But since 1980s the empire seems not able to let nationals trust them anymore and lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union)

Firstly , we cannot call USSR as an empire , as it was not

Secondly , when USSR collapse , it was actually went trough like a referendum and 90% of USSR people they do not want the USSR collapse , and the truth is the collapse of USSR was decided by few people in the government , they signed a document and then take effective immediately the next day even before the border of countries not yet decided that time ( in a rush and without any planning and acknowledgement from USSR people)

So such rush leaded the following 10 years chaos in Russia including huge debts to United States, wrong policy to ban national production of food supply …etc.

To conclude, Igor mentioned many foreign people thought the collapse of USSR was lead by USA which was not , all the problems came from USSR internal problems and wrong decision made by these several leaders .

His answer did inspire Ellen somehow , such huge crisis and issue of a great country all initiated from the internal issues , it reminds us the current status of Taiwan which we shall carefully settle down our internal disagreements before getting ourselves ready for the foreign strategical attacks in any form .

It comes to the end of the meeting , Ellen specially thanks to 3 Blissers – Mike / Carmelo and Angel who gave their good questions to enrich the meeting as well , to Igor , who helped to explain and answer many more questions from Blissers in the meeting spot , hopefully , this meeting can reveal some different perspectives & faces about the mysterious Russia and Russian to all Blissers there , cheers and thanks all for participating the meeting

Feedback from Blissers :

1.      If I were to make a killer yet intriguing opening line about Ellen’s meeting, here it is:

What an insane lady!  She really buckled down addressing almost every bit of the crazy encounters in Russia, ranging from soft wine to strong spirits Vodka, from cultural dance to cultural shock and from enigmatic to transparent.  Awesome gourmet was seen making all mouth-watering.  People were seen being so fun-loving.   Finally the state of mind about Russia surely has changed.   What an entertaining and meaningful meet-up.  However the point pointed out here by Ellen is the key that is to act localized in order to be globalized. As per said, “Think local & Act global” becomes the norm for a solid mindset.   To put it this way, Ellen reaches out to act local in order to go global from which she has becomed sociable with fine social skill and people skill.  And reaching out, from my point of view, is an essential behavior.

What the seeds Ellen has planted, the crops will be highly foreseeable.  I surely got a kick out of it.  If this speech is measurable, I would give Ellen A+++. All today’s marvelous gatherings from sunshine afternoon to moonlit night were terrific.  Cheers Ellen, down the hatch(乾杯）! Keep it up.

2.      Big thanks to Ellen for your vivid sharing. It bought us to Russia to experience the exotic culture . food, and the passion from your colleagues, like a lively virtual trip. You also showed us how to connect with the world and being a perfect model for international diplomacy. Also thanks Igor’s insightful sharing, it broke up our stereotyped impression on Russia and inspired us to think in a totally different perspective

3.      Thank you Ellen for bringing Igor, Julie and Arthur to join this meeting, for they've made our activity more fun and international~ Very much I hope they will keep joining with us in the future ! and also thank Igor and Ellen for sharing stories so we know more about Russia ~And it was also great to had dinner at the artists village's restaurant, the food was so yummy !!

Feedback from Ellen :

WOW~ thank you so much for always giving such encouraging feedbacks with your own finding and insight of each single meeting in Bliss~ and yes , "THINK LOCLA and ACT Global " is the major theme of Bliss all the way from 2018 to this year , and thank you so much to point this out again here for Blissers who did not join the meeting yesterday .I truly found from myself that only when you know more of ourselves including our roots , history and our stance of country , you will be able to exchange your very own and unique point of view when having cultural exchange with foreign friends , and this is the goal of Bliss this year , offering a plateform to all the Blissers to develop the capability to express where you re from , why this influences your personal point of view on the public issues that you are truly caring of .

Through such plateform in Bliss, we will invite more and more foreign friends to exchange their own hometown / countries’ culture with us in the near future ~ Cheers !! Thanks again to Blissers , who always involve yourself to Bliss meetings and getting valuable feedbacks that make Bliss a better place 😊